The Heart's Connection
by Reese M
Summary: Family secrets come to light when the daughters of HG & Myka Bering-Wells and Pete & Clara Lattimer are forced to rescue their parents from an artifact. How will the WH13 family handle this new development? And how will Charlotte "Charlie" Bering-Wells deal with witnessing her loved one's darkest memories? This is the same world as Heart's Truth, Heart's Desire, and Heart's One.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Standard I don't own I'm just playing statement. This story is part of the Heart series of stories so reading those might give context. The OCs are mine. And if anyone catches a change in my canon shoot me a PM to let me know? Thanks :) Enjoy :) ~Reese

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><p>Univille South Dakota had one of everything, one ice cream parlor, one coffee shop, one diner, one movie theater with one screen, so there really wasn't much for the kids of Univille's one high school to do after school. When the students filed out of the building that looked like a throw back to the 1950s they broke off into groups and headed to the only places they had to hang out, the ice cream parlor, coffee shop, and diner. Newly turned sixteen year old Charlotte Penelope Bering-Wells, known to family and friends as Charlie, headed for the coffee shop following the final bell of the day. It was her favorite place in Univille because it was the town's only real music scene. She'd been all of five years old when her Aunt Claudia had brought her to listen to the locals playing and singing almost every type of music one could imagine a small town crowd would know and be into. She'd been ten the first time she sang with her aunt on the tiny stage. They'd sat on stools and Claudia played guitar while they sang Landslide together. Thanks to Claudia, Charlie had a deep love for all things Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. Sometimes that affinity came out in Charlie's wardrobe; she had several handkerchief skirts and kimono jackets, and boots with heels that made her mothers nervous, but she also had a bit of her Mum's tastes as well. Walking up to the counter in her black fitted jeans, pale purple button down, and black unbutton waistcoat, her Mum huffed whenever she called it a vest, Charlie ordered her usual, a London Fog which was a tea latte made with Earl Grey.<p>

Pulling a battered looking notebook out of her bag Charlie made herself comfortable on a stool at the end of the counter. The notebook was full of half written song lyrics and poems, detailed story ideas, doodles and sketches. None of it was a finished product, just a collection of jumbled thoughts and ideas that she needed to get out of her head. Maybe one day it would be more but for now it was just what it was, a notebook full of head vomit. When her drink was placed in front of her Charlie looked up to say thanks and give Mako a smile. She's just taken her first sip when she heard the door open and felt a sudden shift in the feel of the room. Looking over towards the entrance she raised a quizzical eyebrow as she watched Austin Turnfree walk in. Austin was a jock; he played on both the basketball and soccer teams and he was also a gamer, which Charlie knew because every time she walked past him in the hall he was talking about this game or that and his wardrobe consisted of a lot game related t-shirts and hoodies. He was tall and slender, kind of lanky but clearly more fit than awkward. His hair was a dark red, not long, not short, kind of wavy and always neatly styled. His eyes were technically hazel, they were mainly dark green with accents of brown and golden spring green. His voice, like her own, was uniquely accented because of their parental influences. Her Mom had a kind of middle of America American accent with an oddly Canadian inflection to her pronunciation while her Mum clearly had an English accent, so naturally their way of speaking had influenced the sound of her own voice. Austin was the same way. His mother was from Austin Texas so there was a bit of a Texas twang to his voice, but there was also hints of his English father's accent in there too.

The coffee shop wasn't were the jocks hung out, they normally laid claim to the diner, but the coffee shop did attract some of the gamers so maybe that was the reason for Austin's visit. There weren't any official rules on who could go where it was more of a socially agreed upon arrangement that started long before any of them came to UHS. Charlie watched as Austin went over to a table in the corner where a group of guys had been talking loudly about the latest first person space shooter and then turned her attention back to her notebook. Without really thinking about where she was she started writing a lyric about a boy walking in and finally seeing a girl who'd noticed him a long time ago. First day of ninth grade, Charlie had lived in Univille all her life so she took notice of a new student with red hair, hazel eyes, and way to much Axe body spray. She cringed at the memory of the lingering cloud of the Apollo scent and then picked up her drink to replace the memory of it with the warm spell of Earl Grey. She was just stetting her mug down when she heard his voice in her left ear.

"Charlotte, right?" Austin said with a warm smile. When Charlie jumped he quickly pulled his hands from the pockets of her midnight blue letterman's jacket and threw them up in the universal sign for my bad as he apologized. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Was he talking to her? Her dark eyes darted around looking for anyone else but then she realized he'd called her by name. They were a small enough school that she was the only Charlotte in attendance. "It's alright." She finally replied to him when her brain finally figured out how to make her voice work. "I should probably be more aware my surroundings when I'm in public." She offered him a shy smile before saying, "And yes, it's Charlotte, or you know Charlie is fine too."

Austin smiled. "Charlie." He said with an approving nod. "I'm Austin."

"Yes I know." Charlie said to quickly and then added, "You're in my European history class."

"You seem to have a knack for History." Austin said with a charming smile.

"History and English are kind of my thing." Charlie replied.

"So is music." Austin said. "I've heard you here before."

Before Charlie could say anything her cell phone buzzed and a cartoon voice yelled out "Yahtzee!" in her pocket. She flinched a little, kind of embarrassed at her message tone.

"Do you have Harley Quinn in your pocket?" Austin teased with a chuckle.

That made Charlie smile. He knew who Harley Quinn was so was he a nerd, gamer, jock? Being more nerd and gamer would make him a little more her level. She watched sports on tv from time to time but she was in no way a jock, unless archery counted. "No, I have her trapped in my phone." She replied just as her phone alerted her to another text. Pulling her phone out she apologized, "Sorry I need to see who this is." Checking her messages she saw that it was from her little sister. Figuring it wasn't anything important she put her phone back in her pocket.

"Everything ok?" Austin asked.

Charlie nodded. "It's just my sister, Emily."

"Charlotte and Emily." Austin said with a smirk. "Which parent is a fan of the Bronte sisters?"

That impressed Charlie. Apparently there was more to Austin than he led on. Not many people especially people her age, catch that little easter egg. "Both actually." She was about to tell him her mothers were book nerds when her phone started to ring.

Austin laughed. "You're ringtone is God Save the Queen?"

"I happen to be very proud of Her Majesty." Charlie said lightly but seriously. "At one hundred and five she's not only the longest raining monarch she's the oldest ever, so she needs all the god saving she can get." She smiled at the way he smiled at her and sighed, "I'm sorry I need to take this." He nodded his understanding and stepped back a bit so she could take the call. Charlie tried not to sound to biting as she answered, "This better be important."

When he saw her hung up Austin stepped close again. "Everything ok?"

"I'm sure it is." Charlie said as she started putting her things away. "I guess my parents are working late or something, and my sister's freaking out for some reason, so I need to get home."

"Oh, well, I hope she's ok. I guess I'll see you around." Austin said.

Charlie smiled. "Yeah, see you around."

She made her way out to the old restored El Camino her aunt Claudia had given her for her sixteenth birthday muttering under her breath about how dead Emily and Mykayla were when she got home. Mykayla Erin Lattimer was the eldest of Pete and Clara's three kids and their only daughter. She was younger than Charlie and older than Emily. Like her mother and her grandmother Jane, Mykayla had red hair and her father's brown eyes. She also seemed to have her father's ability to sense things which is why Charlie was on her way home rather than finding out what had finally made her crush come over and talk to her. Mykayla was having one of her bad feelings and for some reason it was freaking out Emily, so Charlie was on her way home to see what was going on. Emily Ophelia Bering-Wells like Charlie had dark hair, though Charlie's was black like Helena's whereas Emily's was a darker brown like Myka's. Her eyes were brown like Helena's while Charlie's were hazel like Myka's. Despite the subtle coloring difference though the girls were very clearly sisters, and very clearly perfect blends of their mothers.

Several miles out of Univille, past any real human presence, Charlie turned off the main road onto a smaller private road that would take her further from what past as civilization in small town South Dakota USA. The road was just big enough for two cars to pass each other going in opposite directions and heading away from the main road would take one to a grand old Victorian home. Leena's Bed and Breakfast wasn't really a B it was a private home that housed government agents who worked at a near by government warehouse. Her Aunt Claudia lived there, so did her Uncle Steve, as did Agents Dev Nayar and Renee Delgado. Doctor Tiberius Jackson, Steve's boyfriend and Vanessa's medical partner, also lived there. Abigail ran the place, and Grandpa Artie and Vanessa had a room there too. Charlie wasn't going to the B&B however; she was headed to one of the other two homes on the massive property. There was a Craftsman style house the kind easily found in the Midwest suburbs where Pete and Clara had grown up, which is where her Uncle and his family lived. And then there was the English style cottage she called home.

Walking into the house Charlie called out, "Emily? Kayla?" As soon as the two younger girls came out of the living room she asked, "Ok, what's going on? Why did I need to rush home?"

"No one's around." Emily told her sister.

"What do you mean no one's around?" Charlie asked.

"Mom, Mum, Uncle Pete, Aunt Clara, no one's around." Emily said.

"The B&B is empty too." Mykayla said. "And no one is answering their phones or replying to texts, and no one is picking up at the warehouse."

As far as they knew the warehouse was just that, a government warehouse where things like IRS records, confiscated goods, evidence, and the like were stored. They knew that traveling was apart of their parents work and that sometimes they brought random stuff back to the warehouse. Charlie never really thought more about it than people have really weird junk. The only thing that really mattered when it came to the warehouse and their parents work is that someone was always there for them, so it was odd that they couldn't reach anyone. "Maybe their in a meeting or something. You know they can't really drop everything if Mrs. Frederic's popped in."

Mykayla shook her head. "Something doesn't feel right, Charlie."

There was real concern in her cousin's eyes. She was use to Mykayla and her Uncle Pete having odd feelings about random things but she'd never seen it effect the younger girl so deeply before. She was seriously unsettled over this. "Where are the boys?"

"Cub scout sleepover at their school." Mykayla replied. Peter Aaron and John Arryn were Mykayla's younger brothers and giant handfuls that they didn't need to deal with right now if something was as wrong as she thought it was.

"You're sure the adults aren't at the B&B or your house?" Charlie asked next.

"We rode our bikes to both." Emily cut in. "No one's there."

Charlie looked at her younger cousin and her little sister for a long moment before finally saying, "I'm sure everything is fine, but we'll drive over and get someone to come out and show you two everyone's ok."

Emily and Mykayla nodded and seemed to relax. The three of them made their way out to Charlie's car. Before pulling away from the house Charlie tried calling her moms but there was no answer, so she headed to the warehouse as promised. They weren't allowed inside the warehouse but they'd been there a handful of times. They normally waited in the car for whichever parent they were with. Grandpa Artie and Mrs. Frederic made it perfectly clear that there were things in the warehouse that were classified which is why the warehouse required secret service agents, and that meant it was off limits to off spring. Charlie trusted the adults in her life and had no reason to question what she'd been told even as she got older and began to wonder if there was something more to the warehouse and her parents' work.

The old El Camino came to a stop in front of the warehouse in a cloud of road dust. The first thing Charlie noticed was that everyone's cars seemed to be there, or at least everyone who was in town, so clearly that meant everyone was inside. Dev and Renee were on assignment, Abigail was out of town, and Ben was with Vanessa. That left what her Uncle Pete called the OGC, the original crew. "See," She told the others as she turned the engine off. "They're here. They must be in a meeting or something."

"Why is my Mom's car here?" Mykayla asked. "She wouldn't be at a meeting here. She doesn't work for the warehouse."

"Maybe she brought Uncle Pete his lunch?" Emily offered reassuringly.

After getting out of the car the three girls walked up to the door of the rusted a-frame entrance of the warehouse. Charlie started looking around for a buzzer or comm. system but didn't see any. There was a keypad however so she took a closer look at that while Emily banged on the door. Mykayla spotted a security camera so she waved her hands over her head while calling out for her parents and aunts. There was no response from either of the younger girls attempts at getting someone's attention. Just when Emily and Mykayla were starting to get flustered the door suddenly popped open, causing them both to yelp and jump back. Emily looked around with wide eyes for her sister and saw Charlie standing sheepishly by the keypad.

"Sorry." Charlie said.

"What did you do?" Emily asked.

Charlie pointed at the keypad. "I guess I unlocked the door.

"You knew the pass code?" Emily asked.

Charlie shook her head. "No."

"Then how'd you unlock the door?" The younger Bering-Wells asked.

Now Charlie looked confounded. "I had a hunch?"

"You tease me about feeling things and you went on a hunch?" Mykayla said with her hands on her hips, which made her look very much like her mother.

"What kind of hunch?" Emily asked.

Charlie reached up to push her hair back in a manner very similar to a habit Helena had. "You know those adventure stories Mum use to tell us when we were little?"

Emily thought about it a moment. Helena was always making up grand stories for them so it took a minute to sort through them all. "You mean the ones about Lady Jaime and her loyal companion Joanne?"

Charlie nodded. "Lady Jaime traveled the world looking for fantastical relics and priceless works of art. When she would find something she would store it in her vault."

"Her vault, which was built under a mountain." Emily said as all three girls looked up at the small mountain the warehouse was tucked into. "It had a special lock and needed a particular pass code that only she and Joanne knew."

"I tried that code." Charlie said with a shrug. "It worked."

"So Aunt Helena used the warehouse in her stories?" Mykayla asked.

"Mum says that writers often write what they know." Charlie replied. "She knows the warehouse."

Stepping through the door the last thing the girls expected was the stark white passageway. The outer building was coming out of a mountain, they were expecting a cave not something out of sci-fi show. The girls took it all in and when Charlie got to close to one of the pipes Mykayla said, "Don't touch those."

"What?" Charlie replied. "Why?"

Mykayla shrugged. "My juju sense is tingling. Those things have bad juju."

When they got to the end of the bright white hallway there was another locked door and another keypad, only this one was slightly different. While Charlie looked it over Emily and Mykayla banged on the door and called out for their parents. Again there was no response. Mykayla walked over to see what Charlie was looking. She pointed to what looked like a tiny scanner. She picked at it for a moment and said, "It's a scanner."

Charlie looked at the redhead and asked, "A scanner? What kind of scanner?"

Mykayla shrugged. "I've seen Aunt Claudia working with little bits like this." Mykayla liked to spend time with Claudia's geeky side. She could easily spend hours with Claudia and Helena building and tinkering. She excelled in math and science, which Pete found amusing since neither he nor Clara were tech minded. "The sensor pad looks something like the fingerprint scanner on our tablets, and the little bulb looks like it could be some kind of refractor."

Charlie chewed on her lip the way Myka sometimes did when she was thinking. The dark haired teen turned once again to the stories her mother use to tell them. She combed through looking for the smallest detail and then said, "There's an imperial lion outside the hidden entrance to Lady Jaime's lair. In order to open the hidden door Jaime or Joanne presses the gems on the tag of his collar."

"Then they press their thumbs to the center of the tag." Emily said with a nod. "Then something scans their eye."

"If that was another borrowed fact then we'll never get this door open." Charlie said. "They wouldn't have our fingerprints."

"They might." Emily replied. "Mom had our fingerprints done, remember? Just in case."

"Yeah, just in case we got lost or kidnapped." Charlie replied. "Not just in case we needed to break into her work."

Mykayla and Emily shared a look and what seemed like a nonverbal conversation before looking at Charlie again. "What if it was just in case we needed to get inside?" Mykayla said. "What if Aunt Helena put all those little clues in her stories for a reason?"

"To help us get in if we ever needed too." Emily added.

Charlie wasn't sure about this. Why would her mothers seed such a cloak and dagger way for them to get into a warehouse full of junk? Unless, of course, there was more to that junk than just being junk, but what more could there be? Charlie turned to look at the door again and wondered what exactly was behind it.

"Charlie." Emily said to get her sister's attention. When Charlie was looking at her she pointed to the keypad. "You try."

"Me?" Charlie replied. "Why me?"

"You're the oldest." Emily said simply.

Charlie rolled her eyes. Stepping over to the keypad once again she thought back to the story to remember the sequence used on the lion. She was biting her lip again as she pressed numbers on the keypad. There was a soft beep when she finished and the fingerprint scanner came to life. Biting her lip a little harder she pressed her thumb to the pad. There was a second soft beep before a series of little red beams came out and scanned her eye, which was opened wide in surprise. A third soft beep and the heavy sealed door popped open.

"Ok this is getting weird." Charlie said in hushed tones as she crept over to the door and slowly pulled it open.

Stepping into the office was as jarring as stepping into the unexpected umbilicus had been. It was oddly warm and comforting. There were things in the room that they knew without doubt belonged to their Grandpa Artie, and things that screamed Claudia. Charlie took a careful step further inside as her dark eyes looked for someone, anyone. "Hello?" She called out. "Mum? Mom? Grandpa?"

"Dad?" Mykayla called.

"Aunt Claudia?" Emily tried. Nothing. "Not exactly what I was expecting."

Charlie moved over to a round table near some old file cabinets. There were three stacks of papers placed in front of three chairs. In the center of the table was a tray with a proper full tea service on it. There were two teacups beside two stacks of paper and can of Dr. Pepper at the third. The Dr. Pepper told her that her Uncle Pete had been sitting there, and the handwriting on the closest stack of papers told her it had been her Mum's seat, while the pack of Twizzlers let her know the third seat had been her Mom's. Reaching for the teapot Charlie cupped her hand around it to feel for warmth. "Tea's gone cold."

"Look at this place." Mykayla said as she took in the hodge-podge décor. Her eyes lit up when she saw the desk by the window. "Looks at those computers."

Emily had found another door and had opened it and stepped out onto the catwalk. She stood at the railing looking out over the Warehouse with huge eyes. "Guys." She said but wasn't loud enough to be heard. "Guys!"

"What?" Mykayla replied as she stepped out onto the catwalk. "Wow. So not what I was expecting."

"Is that an airship? A ferries wheel?" Emily asked.

Charlie had stepped out onto the catwalk behind her cousin and was simply thunderstruck. She wasn't sure what she was looking at but she knew she was looking at something amazing. Once again her mind flooded with her mothers stories and she gasped. "A world full of remarkable things." She whispered. "A place of endless wonder. Its real."

The two younger girls had gone back into Artie's office, to overwhelmed or to young to understand what they were seeing. Most likely it was both. They were looking at things on desks and tables when Emily spotted what looked like an old music box, a really old music box. It was square, made of wood that was varnished dark. There were intricate designs around the middle of the sides of the box, and around the edge of the lid. In the center of the lid was an oval that looked as if it might pop open. Emily reached for the music box but stopped when two voices called out at the same time.

"Don't touch that."

One voice had been Charlie's. She couldn't explain it, she didn't get feelings like Mykayla, but she had sudden understanding that you didn't just randomly touch anything in this place. The second voice belonged to the looming figure of an older black woman whose sense of fashion had gotten stuck in the fifties.

"Mrs. Frederic." Charlie said as she looked at the woman after watching her sister back away from the table with the music box.

"Hello children." Mrs. Frederic said with a curt nod of her head.

The three girls felt a rush of panic and fear. They knew they weren't supposed to be in here so there was an internal struggle going on in all three of them, the concern over their parents and the thought of getting into trouble for being there. Charlie was the first to push the struggle aside. "I know we're not allowed in here, but we were worried about our parents. No one's at home and it looks like no one's here either. Where are they?"

For a long moment Mrs. Frederic said nothing. She simply stood there with her purse over her arm staring at Charlie. Charlie, to her credit, didn't look away no matter how badly she wanted too. Mrs. Frederic had been apart of their lives; she was a family friend, a distant great aunt of sorts. The children loved her, respected her, but much like their parents found her to be kind of scary. After several more long moments of looking at Charlie she finally spoke. "You can feel it can't you?"

"Feel what?" Charlie asked, confused and starting to feel a little frightened. Mrs. Frederic simply jerked her head towards the open door and the warehouse beyond it. Charlie looked over her shoulder, out into the seemingly never-ending depths of the warehouse, and then turned back to Mrs. Frederic. "I'm not sure."

Mrs. Frederic smiled. She was sure. Then the smile disappeared. "You're parents and the others are in danger. I'm going to need your help to get them out."

"Get them out?" Emily asked.

"Out of what?" Mykayla added.

Charlie's gaze went right to the music box.

Mrs. Frederic nodded. "Yes Charlotte. We must get them out of the music box, and we must do it quickly before they're lost in their memories forever."


	2. Chapter 2

Events and strong emotions had the power to turn ordinary objects into extraordinary items that could do unbelievable things. For example, a run of the mill antique music box could have the ability to hold memories. It could also have the ability to transport a physical person from the real world into itself, trapping that person inside by locking them into a loop of their bad memories. Or at least that was what Mrs. Frederic was trying to explain to Charlie, Emily, and Mykayla. Emily, the youngest daughter of Myka Bering and Helena Wells, and Mykayla, the only daughter and oldest child of Pete Lattimer and his wife Clara, looked as if they were totally buying what Mrs. Frederic was saying. Myka and Helena's sixteen-year-old daughter Charlotte, who went by Charlie most of the time, looked as if she were trying to believe what she was being told but a part of her was fighting against it. It was a look, a reaction, that Mrs. Frederic had seen the girl's mother go through so many years ago when Myka first arrived at the Warehouse. Mrs. Frederic didn't know what exactly it would be but she was absolutely positive Charlotte Bering-Wells would have a connection to the Warehouse in her future.

"I know this is a lot to take in." Mrs. Frederic began.

Charlie sank into a chair at the table where her mothers had been having tea at some point that day. She reached for what would have been her Mum's cup and down the cold milky sweet earl grey and then grimaced because earl grey was not meant to be drunk cold. A lot to take in was a clear understatement. Charlie wasn't sure where to even start sorting this all out. Did she start with the fact that her mothers and all her loved ones worked for a magic warehouse full of magic junk? Or maybe she could start with learning that all the fantastical stories her Mum had told her for as long as she could remember were actually true? Lady Jaime and her companion Joanne were so totally her Mum and her Mom. Thinking about all the things the characters had done in the stories and linking them to her mothers, the adventure, the danger, the near misses and close calls, made Charlie reach for her Mom's cold tea and down it as well.

"Should you be drinking that?" Emily asked her sister with concern. She was freaking out but not nearly as badly. Being thirteen meant she was still child enough to believe in wondrous things a little more easily. "What if you get like sucked into the tea pot or something?"

"It's fine, Em." Charlie reassured.

"How can you be sure?" The younger sister asked.

"I bought this tea set for Mum for mother's day last year." Charlie replied with a reassuring smile.

Mrs. Frederic took the girls in and sighed inwardly. They had been so careful about the children's knowledge of the Warehouse's true nature. Everyone, epically their parents, wanted to keep them safe. With the others trapped she had no choice but to tell them the truth and help them deal with it, so it wouldn't do to have her façade crack now because the girls would need her to be the imposing figure she was. "I know this is a lot to take in." She repeated. "But we don't have the luxury of time."

"Of course." Charlie said with a firm nod as she stood. She put her hand on her sister's shoulder and gave her another reassuring smile before walking over to stand beside Mrs. Frederic. In that moment Charlie had shifted from a confused, overwhelmed, frightened child into a young woman who was every bit every great thing about each of her mothers. "What do we do?"

"Luckily this has happened before." Mrs. Frederic explained. "So for once we know exactly what to do."

Mrs. Frederic explained that one of them would have to go into the music box, and reassured them that she had safety precautions that would keep the one going in from getting trapped as well. She told them that the adults were trapped inside by their bad memories, that it was being focused on those and the weighted emotion that came with them that kept them trapped. Each of the girls realized that whoever went in would have to face things they were sure their parents wouldn't want them to know about. It was a lot to ask of children. Charlie spoke up before the other two had a chance. "I'll go."

"I was going to choose you anyway but thank you for volunteering." Mrs. Frederic said approvingly.

"My parents are in there too!" Mykayla argued.

Mrs. Frederic nodded while retrieving several boxes from what seemed to be random file drawers. "Yes, but your skills are needed out here."

"My skills?" Mykayla asked. "What skills?"

The larger of the two boxes Mrs. Frederic had fetched held what looked like a large leather cuff with an iWatch attached to it. She pulled the cuff out of the box and held it out to Charlie. "That will keep you from getting trapped in your own memories. It will allow you to be outside memory itself so you can interact with who you're there to get."

"Interact with them?" Charlie asked as she took the cuff and looked it over.

Mrs. Frederic nodded. "They'll be outside their memories, watching them, reliving them, but not interacting with them. Memories are the past and can't be changed though I'm sure some will try."

Charlie put the cuff on her left wrist and looked up. "Ok so how do I break them free of the trap?"

"You make them remember their good memories." Mrs. Frederic explained. "You remind them of their connections to this world. When they get to a certain point they'll be able to break free of the trap and once they realize what's going on they'll reappear here, in the real world." Mrs. Frederic could see the fear and uncertainty in Charlie's eyes. She opened the second box and pulled out an earpiece. "You won't be alone, Charlotte. We'll be able to hear you and you'll be able to ear us."

Charlie took the earpiece and held it in her hand while she tried to prepare herself for this. This all felt like some wild dream caused by one of her mother's outrageous stories. Only there was a heaviness in her heart that told her this was no dream. Her moms were in danger; the people she loved most in the world were in danger. Charlie nodded to let Mrs. Frederic know she understood and then put the earpiece in.

Mrs. Frederic nodded her approval again. Then she turned back to Mykayla. "I'll need you to help keep the connection to the cuff and the earpiece. Claudia and Helena created both the tech and the programs to use them, and you've learned a lot of from them."

Mykayla would still rather go in after her parents but she understood. She nodded. "Ok."

"What about me?" Emily said quietly. She was the youngest of the three, still a kid, but she wanted to help. She wanted her moms back.

From her purse Mrs. Frederic pulled out a velvet pouch. She opened it and poured two stones into the palm of her hand. "You have a very important role to play, Emily. When we deal with anything that involves the memory we always use the buddy system. Its so very easy to get trapped inside our memories." She placed one stone in Emily's hand before turned to give the other to Charlie. "Your job Emily is to be an anchor for your sister, her link to the real world, her way back when she's finished."

Charlie could read her sister's fear and smiled at her. "I'm in good hands."

Emily looked up at her big sister with wide eyes and then she smiled and nodded. "I got your back."

"Ok then lets do this." Charlie said after taking a deep breath.

Mrs. Frederic did her best to prepare Charlie but how prepared for something like this could one so young be? Charlie gave her sister and cousin one last reassuring look and then Mrs. Frederic, Mykayla, and Emily went outside to wait. Everyone who was near the music box when it was activated was sucked into it, so they couldn't be there when Charlie activated it. Once she was alone and could hear Mykayla and Mrs. Fredric on the earpiece she reached for the oval on top of the music box and after a deep steadying breath she popped it open.

Everything went blindingly white.

"Charlotte?"

"Charlie?"

"Charlotte, can you hear me?"

Charlie groaned. She was on all fours with her eyes closed. She could still see the flash of light brightly on the backs of her eyelids. "Not so loud. Yes, I can hear you."

"Are you alright?" Emily asked.

Again Charlie groaned. "Yes, I'm alright. Just waiting for my vision to clear."

There was a long pause and Charlie could hear Mrs. Frederic explaining something about suddenly flipping a light on after being in total darkness all night. Then Mrs. Frederic asked, "Where are you Charlotte?"

Charlie had given up when she was five when it came to getting Mrs. Frederic to call her Charlie. The woman insisted on calling her by her actual name and it was only just starting to not annoy her. Opening her eyes and getting to her feet Charlie looked around. Everything was in black and white but her, which was really weird. "I'm not sure." She replied at first. Wherever she was it wasn't someplace she'd even been. "Outside some kind of hanger maybe?" She began walking towards the front of the large building she was outside of. "There's an suv outside and I think I hear something inside."

There was undisguised sadness in Mrs. Frederic's voice as she said, "Charlotte, I think you're in Claudia's memories. I need you to keep something in mind. Everything you see is in the past and no matter how unexplainable it might seem it can be explained and will be when this done if you need it to be."

That sent a shiver down Charlie's spine. What was she about to see? She was already feeling kind of guilty for intruding on personal memories, but now she felt a deep sense of dread as well. Children don't see the adults in their lives as people with lives and experiences of their own that have nothing to do with them and Charlie was still enough of a child not to want the gilded images of her loved ones tarnished. She knew she needed to go inside, that she would find Claudia if Mrs. Frederic was right about these being her memories, but now she was frightened by the idea what she might see.

"Charlie?" Emily's voice cut through Charlie's trepidation. "Are you ok?"

Charlie took a breath. This wasn't only about her. These were people she loved but they were also people she needed, people her sister loved and needed, people her cousins loved and needed. She could face this, she had to, there were no other choices. "I am now Em. Thanks."

She walked into what she realized was an airplane hanger. It was massive and empty except for three people by the stairs across the room. She moved further in and could now see who those people were. "Mom!" She cried out when she saw Myka standing at the bottom of the stairs, but there was no reply. "Uncle Pete! Aunt Claudia!"

There was no response because it wasn't them; it was a memory of them, Claudia's memory of them. Charlie watched helplessly as the black and white memories of her mom and uncle and her aunt played out.

"_Pete?" Myka called out as Pete came down the stairs. "What's wrong?" _

"_Nothing." Pete replied, his voice breathless and shaken. "They're gone. Lets get back to the car." _

"_What's wrong?" Claudia asked. _

"_I said get back to the car!" Pete demanded. _

There was a crack in her uncle's voice that Charlie had never heard before and it felt like a dart had been thrown at her heart. Charlie began to tremble as she continued to watch.

"_Pete? What is it?" Claudia asked. _

"_Please get back to the car." Pete whispered. _

She didn't know why, though she soon would, but there were tears in Charlie's eyes. The tone of Pete's voice, the look on Claudia's face, more thrown darts that hit painfully and made her move closer to the black and white echo of her mother. She watched as Claudia ran up the stairs. Then there was a scream, a scream unlike any noise she had ever heard, a scream that took her breath away even though it hadn't come from her. Charlie ran up the stairs behind her Mom and her Uncle without even thinking and what she found she simply couldn't comprehend. "Uncle Steve? Uncle Steve!"

"Its in the past, Charlotte." Mrs. Frederic said in her ear.

"He's dead!" Charlie cried.

"He got better." Mrs. Frederic said firmly. "You saw him just last night didn't you?"

Charlie nodded numbly as if she could be seen and then remember she couldn't be seen. "Yes." She said, her voice trembling. "Yes, he helped me with my diversity homework. We did a power point on Buddhism and finished off all the caramel tim tams. Before he left for the airport Toby called us heathens for using cold milk rather than something hot. "

"Ground yourself in your own memories, Charlotte." Mrs. Frederic advised. "You will see things like this again I'm sure of it. When you do, remember the last time you were with that person and remember that what you're seeing are memories of the past. Agent Jinks isn't dead. He's waiting for you to find him and help him just like you're going to help Claudia."

Claudia. This was Claudia's memory. Charlie blinked away the tears that were blurring her sight and looked around the room. At first all she saw was the black and white echo of Claudia as she stood there staring at Steve with her eyes full of tears and shock. Then in the far corner of the room she caught a flash of color, a streak of electric blue. Claudia was experimenting with her look again and had gone back to putting strips of color in her hair, which was now much longer and often worn up in twists and buns. Charlie slowly made her way over to the far corner of the room and sighed softly when she saw her aunt in full living color. "Aunt Claudia?" She said gently as she approached. "Aunt Claudia, it's me, it's Charlie."

There was no response from the real Claudia either. She was too focused on watching her younger self and reliving the horrific moment. Charlie reached out and put her hand on Claudia's arm. "It's not real, Aunt Claudia, at least not anymore. This happened a long time ago." She tried to make her aunt look her in the eye but it felt like Claudia was just looking right through her to the scene behind her.

"Mrs. Frederic." Charlie's voice shook with doubt and pain. "I don't know what to do."

"Get her to think about a happy memory." Mrs. Frederic replied. "A memory you share together."

Tears streaked down Charlie's cheeks. "How do I know how to pick a happy memory we'd share?"

"Every person inside that box loves you so very much, Charlotte." Mrs. Frederic reassured. "And any memory you have with them that's happy for you is going to happy for them too."

Charlie swallowed the lump in her throat. "Are you sure?"

"I am very sure." Came the firm response.

"Ok." Charlie replied. She closed her eyes and took a breath and thought of a memory where she and her aunt were happy. When she had one in mind she opened her eyes and was about to start speaking when things around them began to blur. Mrs. Frederic said that the memories would be on a loop, that the box would make them see all the worse moment of their lives. Charlie wasn't sure she could handle what was coming up next but that didn't stop her from looking around to see where they were now. The airplane hanger had morphed into the inside of some kind of wooden structure. Artie replaced Steve, Pete, and her Mom in Claudia's memory and now Charlie watched, confused, as Claudia stabbed the man she considered her father.

"Whoa shit!" Charlie said before she could stop herself.

"What?" Mykayla asked. "What's going on?"

"Claudia just stabbed Grandpa Artie in the heart!" Charlie replied.

"Share your memories, Charlotte." Mrs. Frederic said firmly. "Now if you please."

That wasn't really something one saw and shook off but Charlie turned to look at the real Claudia and said, "Do you remember taking me to my first comic con, Aunt Claudia?" Charlie took hold of her aunt's hand, surprised to find it felt warm and real. "We spent weeks binge watching Once Upon a Time and making our cosplay outfits. When we walked into the convention center on Saturday I was the Evil Queen and you came as Emma because I got a kick out of yelling, Ms. Swan!" She smiled, her voice tainted with a soft chuckle. "You made me my very own glowing heart, remember? I had so much fun that day. I still don't know how you got us in to that signing so I could get Lana's autograph and a picture. I still have the heart and the picture in a frame on my bookshelf." She paused to once again make Claudia look at her. "We ran into Uncle Pete, remember? He was dressed like Stan Lee. We spent the whole weekend there. It was amazing."

The black and white memories playing out behind Charlie began to burr and flicker again. Slowly the bad memories were being replaced with the good, black and white with flickers of color. A flash of red from the pulsing red heart Charlie had carried around, some sparkle from her dress, and a dash of blue from Claudia's jacket. It was working but Charlie needed something stronger, a stronger memory, a stronger connection.

"The very first song you ever taught me that wasn't a kiddy song was Mercedes Benz. You thought it was funny to teach a three year old to sing like Janis Joplin. Then you taught me that song in Russian so we could sing it for Grandpa Artie's birthday." That was it. That seemed to be getting through to Claudia. The memories behind Charlie became more colorful, more vivid. She could hear herself as a little girl stumbling her way through learning new songs, new cords on the guitar, new notes on the piano, and the unmistakable sound of a five year old learning to play bagpipes. Music was her link to Claudia.

Charlie closed her eyes and began to hum the opening notes of a song they'd sung together since she was little. Then she began to softly sing, "Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean ties? Can I handle the seasons of my life?"

She makes it nearly through the whole song and could feel panic creeping in when Charlie hears the crack of Claudia's voice, "Time makes you bolder, even children get older, and I'm getting older too."

Claudia's still hands began plucking out the notes as if she were playing the guitar and Charlie nearly cried. "Aunt Claudia?"

"Charlie?" Claudia questioned as she blinked her eyes as if awaking from a bad dream.

"Oh thank god." Charlie said with a heavy sigh of relief as she threw her arms around the woman to hug her.

Claudia's arms went around Charlie tightly as realization hit her. "The music box."

Charlie nodded but before she could explain Claudia was gone and she was engulfed in the blinding white light again.


	3. Chapter 3

There wasn't time for Claudia to deal with reliving some of the worse times in her life because her best friends' teenage daughter was traveling through an artifact to save them all. When she'd popped out of the music box after Charlie had snapped her out of its trap the last thing Claudia was expecting to find was Mrs. F and her other two nieces. Seeing Mykayla sitting at her computer monitoring the devises Charlie was wearing and Emily by the microphone and speaker made Claudia realize that it hadn't been a memory echo of Charlie that had broken her free it was Charlie herself. Her first thought after that was how grateful she was to the girl and then how pissed off Myka and Helena would be. Since Charlie's birth Helena had cut back on fieldwork. She was still very much an active agent, but traveling far from home was an occasional occurrence, and she didn't want to do that so over the years she had kind of naturally been stepping into Artie's role as Warehouse foreman. It had been her work for Warehouse 12 that had kept Helena from traveling to France with Christina and she would be damned if Warehouse 13 kept her from being with Christina's sisters. Myka and Pete continued to be senior agents and partners, they continued doing fieldwork, but also took on training and assessing new people because they too wanted to be with their families. It had taken a lot of hard work and finesse to balance out their homes and family and the Warehouse, and a part of that balance was keeping their kids away from the crazy. Yet here they were in the Warehouse around an unknown artifact that had managed to whammy every experienced person who'd been in the room.

"We may be sharing Caretaker duties these days but you get to be the one who explains this to the parental units." Claudia told Mrs. Frederic after a brief breakdown of what the hell was going on.

"I did not recruit their help." Mrs. Frederic replied. "They managed to get in here all on their own, and time was limited and the others simply to far away and already working on their own issues. They were the only choice."

Claudia turned to look at Mykayla and Emily. "I guess Helena was right about making sure you had access to us in extreme emergencies."

"Hello?" Charlie's voice came out over the speaker. "Hello? Aunt Claudia's gone. I don't know where she went."

The young Caretaker went over to the microphone as quickly as she could get across the room. "I'm here, Charlie. I'm back in the real world. Way to save my bacon, kid." There was a sigh of relief over the speaker. "Are you ok?"

"Yes." Charlie replied. "I'm ok."

"Where are you now?" Mrs. Fredric asked.

"I don't know." Charlie said. "Everything is black and white again." There was a long pause and then, "Can you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Claudia asked.

When Charlie first appeared in this music box world it had been black and white and silent. She hadn't heard anything until stepping into the airplane hanger and the conversation happening inside. But this time when the blinding white light hit there was a sound very faint and far away but now that she was wherever she was she could tell it was, "Music, I think. It's soft, distant, but yeah, it's music."

"What kind of music?" Claudia asked.

"It's a music box." Emily said. "It's probably Greensleeves or something."

Charlie smiled. "It's music box type music but it's not Greensleeves."

"If you can, ignore it." Claudia said. "You need to do what you did with me, Charlie. You need to keep moving, keep getting to everyone. The shield devise you're wearing only has so much power."

"And with each person you free the harder it will be to free the next person." Mrs. Frederic told her.

Charlie groaned. "Great."

Blinking once again to clear her vision Charlie started looking around to see if she could tell where she was. It was night, outside an office building, and there were a lot of emergency vehicles around. It was a good thing she was fond of black and white movies or the colorless flashing of emergency lights would be a little disorientating. "I'm outside again." She told the others as she began making her way through the crowd and commotion. No one noticed her, which was good. It meant a police officer or fireman wouldn't stop her as she looked for who was remembering this. "I think there was a fire or something."

"What makes you think so?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

"The huge fire trucks, the firemen, the ambulances, the police." Charlie replied. "So I'm either at a fire or a first responder convention." She couldn't see it but her snark was making her aunt smirk. As she continued to make her way to the building she heard voices. Focusing on the voices rather then the faint music, she slowly began to recognize Claudia's and than Steve's. "Aunt Claudia, are you sure your back in the real world?"

"Yeap, I'm in Artie's office, why?" Claudia replied.

Charlie hummed as she thought and then said, "Then that means I'm in Uncle Steve's memory."

A part of her was relived that she didn't have to see the moments leading up to Claudia's memories. If she tried hard enough maybe she could make herself think Steve was only sleeping in that chair and not dead. That would be harder to do if she had to watch him die. Stepping onto the sidewalk and past the barriers she could finally see where the voices were coming from. Steve and Claudia were sitting outside the building talking. They were both still alive so that was a good sign. Maybe this memory wouldn't be as bad as Claudia's.

"_That was a crappy day at the office." Claudia said as she sat beside Steve. Steve didn't reply. There was something in his expression. "Hey? What's going on? You look like you had to put down Old Yeller yourself or something." _

"_You know Claud there is no one I'd rather chase artifacts with than you." Steve finally said as he looked over at her. _

"_Why am I sensing an ugly subtext here?" Claudia asked. _

"_I was," Steve started and stumbled. "Insubordinate today."_

_Claudia laughed. "Please, welcome to my world." _

"_No I'm serious." Steve replied firmly. There was a moment where they looked at each other and the weight of what Steve was about to say hit them. "I drew my gun on Mrs. Frederic and she fired me." _

That shocked Charlie. Her Uncle Steve was the straight-laced type. He was the always do the right thing and follow orders type. What could have possibly made him pull a gun on Mrs. Frederic of all people? There was clearly more to this memory but all she was getting was this tiny piece. She watched as Steve and Claudia argued over Claudia trying to make things right and then watched as Steve kissed her cheek and walked away. Steve walked away and Claudia sank into a crouched position and even though he couldn't see her the look on his face told Charlie he could hear the hurt in her sigh.

Steve's memory swirled around Charlie so quickly that it made her queasy and she groaned as she fought the urge to vomit.

"Charlie?" Claudia's voice was full of concern.

"I'm ok." Charlie replied. She had her eyes closed as tightly as she could get them, hoping the feeling would pass. "Steve's memories are shifting faster than yours did." 

"What are you seeing now?" Mrs. Frederic asked.

Charlie opened her eyes to find herself in a parking garage. Steve stood near by pointing some kind of a weapon at her mothers. Her Mum looked terrified while her Mom looked confused and hurt. A part of her knew this was just like in Claudia's memory and the black and white echoes wouldn't hear her but she still called out to them. "Mum! Mom!" Panic and fear once again washed over her. "I don't understand. Why is Steve holding a ray gun on my moms?"

"It's a long story kid." Claudia replied.

"I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of long stories." Charlie groaned.

The girl watched as her Uncle Pete came in. She listened to the conversation, could hear the hurt and disbelief in Pete's voice when he talked about Steve working for a man name Walter Sykes. She watched as Steve told some creepy looking man who her Mum was and then she watched in horror as Steve shot her Mom and Pete. Charlie didn't think she just ran to the echo of her mother and dropped to her knees. She tried to touch her, to grab her, but her hands only touched air. "Mom!"

She heard her Mum scream and looked up just in time to see the creepy man dragging her out of the building. She reached out towards her, crying out for her. "Mum! Mummy!"

But then Steve's memories began to swirl around again. The forest was starting to take shape when Claudia's voice sounded in Charlie's ear. "Charlie, listen to me. Steve's reliving a time when he was forced to hurt those he cared about to make us think he'd turned his back on us. He was undercover, he had to do it, but he didn't want too. He must still feel guilty about hurting us. Find the real Steve, Charlie. Ignore what's going on in his memory and find Steve."

It wasn't easy to remember anything good after seeing Steve hurt her moms but Charlie forced herself to remember Mrs. Fredric saying that this was all in the past. The man in these memories wasn't the man she called her uncle. With her eyes closed tight Charlie remained kneeling on the ground, her fingers digging into nothing more than echo. "Uncle Steve." She called out, her voice trembling. "When Emily was born you use to tell me about how important, how special it was to be a big sister. You said part of being a big sister was protecting her. She can hear me now; she can hear me reacting to your memories of our Moms. I need you to stop. Uncle Steve, please, I need you to stop. I need you to help me find the real you."

When Charlie finally opened her eyes the forest that had been forming around her was gone. Instead she found herself in a room full of bronze statutes. Getting to her feet she looked around and crinkled her nose. "I hate the smell of bronze."

"Bronze?" Claudia asked.

Charlie nodded. "I'm in a room full of bronze statues and Uncle Steve. He's standing behind his memory self." She explained as she walked over to Steve and his black and white double. "And their staring at one that looks like you."

"That is me." Claudia said into her ear. "Another long story. Just do what you did with me, kiddo."

She'd been able to use music to get through to Claudia because that was where their connection was strongest. What connected her to Steve? Wedging herself between Steve and the bronze statue of Claudia Charlie looked into her uncle's eyes. "Grownups are always trying to teach us things because it's what they do. Most of the time it's really useful stuff, stuff we need to become good people. Sometimes it's really silly stuff that makes the hardcore stuff easier to handle. You've taught me a lot, Uncle Steve, but I guess the most important things have been to be an honest and upfront person, and most important of all to be true to myself, and who I am. I've always been able to come to you in those kinds of moments, when I'm struggling with those kinds of things. You're the person I trust to always be straight with me, no pun intended." She smiled a little as she passed through the echo of Steve to reach for the real Steve's hand. "I need you to remember those times, Uncle Buddha-man."

Charlie closed her eyes and focused on memories of Steve and her talking about issues she was having in school or with her friends. Steve's memories began to swirl. The bronze sector shifted to the kitchen of the Bering-Wells cottage. Steven and a twelve-year-old Charlie stood in aprons making holiday cookies for her class. Charlie was telling him all about Tina, the class bully, and how Charlie hated it when she would pick on the other kids. Charlie hadn't been sure what to do. She knew she wanted to help, to stand up for her classmates, but she was afraid and unsure. Steve helped her see that even though she was scared of Tina's retaliation the right thing to do was help her classmates. Of course Steve had meant help out by informing an adult, but Charlie helped out by giving the girl a bloody nose.

The memory shifted again and a younger Charlie was now talking to a crouched Steve who peered down at her in her hiding place. He was convincing her that it was better to come clean to her moms about breaking the stain glass window in their living room with her cricket ball rather than to try and convince them Lulu had done it. Another shift and Steve was staring wide eyed, caught between amusement and panic, as he took in a four year old Charlie who'd decided she'd wanted to play Lilo and Stitch and would therefore need a Stitch so she'd dyed Lulu blue. The color was returning to Steve's memories. The blue food coloring Charlie had used to dye the dog's snow white fur stood out in startling contrast to what remained of the black and white echoes. It had been the first time Steve had been allowed to watch Charlie while both Myka and Helena were out of town and he didn't want them to think he couldn't handle things, so he never told them about this. He took Lulu to the groomer and cleaned up Charlie and the bathroom. Her parents were none the wiser. Steve had taken a picture of the two but no one knew he had it.

Charlie laughed as she watched the memory. "Ok maybe this one time doesn't count when it comes to the whole being truthful and honest thing."

"Maybe not." The real Steve said which made Charlie turn back to look at him. "But it shows where the trust we have started."

Charlie threw her arms around him and just like with Claudia the moment Steve was grounded in reality again he was gone. This time Charlie wasn't as startled. "I wonder if this will go quicker if I start with the hug first."


End file.
